Plitvice Lakes

This Croatian national park has 16 clear turquoise lakes linked
by waterfalls and cascades in an unspoiled forest setting.

Plitvice Lakes
tips and insights

How to pronounce

Plitvice = pleet-weet-cha

Three sections

Upper Lakes

It's easily the best of the three.

Lower Lakes

Most tour groups come here despite it being inferior to the
Upper Lakes. Veliki Slap (the park's tallest waterfall) is its
best Lower Lakes attraction.

Lake Kosjak

It's the largest and separates the Upper and Lower Lakes. A small
ferry takes you across.

Avoiding crowds

Plitvice Lakes draws nearly a million visitors annually. Because
the walkways are narrow, crowded conditions arise in the peak
summer season. There are several ways to avoid the crowds.

Arrive early or late in the day

Come before 9 am (tour busses from Zagreb and Zadar usually
begin pouring in around 11 am). Or, arrive after 2:30 pm.

Skip the short trails

They reside in the Lower Falls region and are the ones tour-bus
groups normally use.

Avoid July and August

Plitvice Lakes is too popular for its own good during this period.
The best time to come is late Spring when crowds are relatively thin
and waterfalls are in full force. Early Fall is good, too, but the
waterfalls have lost much of their former potency. Winter months
bring snow, ice and, sometimes, frozen waterfalls.